The Universe Rings (A Ringing Purpose)

Chapter Twenty-Five

A magical shield of some sort formed on Brel's back, all attacks bounced off. Kenneth ran in front of Brel—now mostly safe from attacks from behind.

The fight wasn't any less disorienting, but it felt safer with Brel's presence; Kenneth glanced over his shoulder to see if the doctor was still with him. Due to the vulnerability looking over his shoulder had caused last time, Kenneth eventually stopped checking if Brel was still with him and had to trust Brel was indeed still there—fighting Interitus and protecting him.

Kenneth ran his sword through Interitus, snow crunching under his feet. His shoulder seared; Brel had been right, the spell wasn't a long term effect—at least the bleeding hadn't begun again.

Attacks came from every direction, Interitus died and new ones came faster than Kenneth could think. Kenneth stopped as an Interitus came at him with electrical hands, he turned in another direction, but after spinning around, he realized both he and Brel were surrounded by Interitus.

Brel's shield disappeared, and he formed different magical weapons, shooting smoky but deadly arrows at Interitus. By the wave of his hand, a shield spawned in front of Kenneth for a level of protection.

It was two against a dozen. They were outnumbered and overwhelmed.

In a flash, half of the Interitus' swarm were sent sprawling to the ground and a dozen Venenarius appeared. Kenneth sighed.

The horde of Interitus and Venenarius sent assaults at each other. Kenneth stumbled as he was pushed into the middle of the crowd of Venenarius—their bodies now barriering him. He felt safer, but he could do nothing but stand there and flinch at the alarming spells. He squinted around, trying to spot Brel, but couldn't see him.

In the midst of the fight, Kenneth looked up at the sky. There was still nothing other than spells and weapons flying above; due to the gray clouds, the sun wasn't visible, so telling what time of day it was was impossible. Had it only been thirty minutes since the battle started or hours? Kenneth could barely recall the last events enough to figure out how much time had passed. To be plain, he wouldn't like to think about the last events.

Kenneth's teeth painfully clamped together as he and hundreds were blown from their feet.

Kenneth sunk into the snow, smoke stinging his eyes. The body of a dead Venenarius slumped over his legs. Most of the Venenarius seemed to have survived, and were back on their feet as quickly as they had fallen. But what little order they had had was gone and the backlash was violent.

Kenneth scramble to his feet and backed away from the huge new breakout. Where was Brel? His eyes darted over the inconsistent blur, anxiety weighing him down. His hands were empty and his head hurt. Blood began to seep through Brel's spell.

Kenneth turned away from the fight and frantically scanned the ground for a weapon. A spear, a mace, arrows, rocks, a sword hurtling straight for his stomach held by an Interitus. Panicked, Kenneth's hands grabbed for the incoming blade, eyes half shut. Metal slid against flesh, pain shot through the palm of his left hand, and his pounding chest impacted with snow.

Kenneth gasped; stinging spread from the palm of his left hand to forearm and elbow. Terrified, Kenneth rolled to his back and clenched his hand. His chest rose and fell as blood seeped from a deep cut in his palm—it was a miracle that his hand hadn't been severed.

It wasn't that bad, only he wouldn't be able to use his left hand...

Kenneth flinched as the Interitus that had attacked him slumped to the ground nearby—seemingly killed by someone.

Kenneth began scooting away from the body but the blood from his injured hand caught his eye; as the blood seeped from his palm, its red color turned to a pink to an almost green. His head clouded and his vision swam in and out of focus. His fingers seemed to multiply and as he looked around, his environment warped. He could hardly think but he knew that sword had been poisoned.